Finding How To Help Online

Mandi Bishop of Boynton Beach wanted to put in 10 or 20 hours a week volunteering, so she went to a new Web site listing volunteer needs in Palm Beach County.

"I entered a few key words and they gave me 13 opportunities within five or 10 miles of my zip code. It was fantastic," said Bishop, 26. "The Web site allows you to narrow your search automatically.

"I found several literacy programs that I'm really interested in. It gave me all the contact information that I needed and a brief synopsis of each of those opportunities."

The new Web site, sponsored by the United Way of Palm Beach County, offers people such as Bishop all the information they need in one place when they're looking for a place to volunteer.

Sixty-four charitable agencies with a variety of volunteer openings are on the Web site, www.unitedwaypbc.org.

"We wanted to make volunteering easy and accessible to everyone," said Lise Landry, director of the Volunteer Center of the United Way of Palm Beach County, based in Boynton Beach. "We also wanted to decrease the effort it takes for an agency to list its needs."

The Web site replaces a low-tech and cumbersome method of publicizing volunteer needs in the county.

"We'd been producing and distributing our monthly newsletter and project calendar insert for a little over three years. It was a costly effort," Landry said.

She hopes turning to the Internet will "increase our exposure, while at the same time decrease our costs."

The Web site, launched in September and maintained by Volunteer Center staff, was developed by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students. United Way of Palm Beach County contracts for the rights to the system, called Volunteer Solutions, on an annual basis from United Way of America, which owns the program.

"There's been only one glitch so far," Landry said. "One of the persons I spoke to said he wasn't clear where he was to go for a project. There were directions, but not a street address, only the street name. We have to figure out how to word directions as carefully as possible, so volunteers who are looking at a page know just where they have to go."

Stepping through registration at the site helps volunteers identify exactly where their interests are or what they would be comfortable doing. For instance, people are asked to choose whether they want to work with adults, infants, animals, the elderly, children or minorities.

People who don't like to travel too far can enter a destination that's convenient, even within a mile from their zip code. They can also choose a volunteer job that matches the time they have available.

"I received my e-mail confirming my registration within seconds," Bishop said. "I selected two agencies, Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition. I have a very flexible schedule and hopefully I'll be working for them on a weekly basis. The Web site worked very, very well for me."